Famous Starched Poems by Famous Poets

These are examples of famous Starched poems written by some of the greatest and most-well-known modern and classical poets. PoetrySoup is a great educational poetry resource of famous starched poems. These examples illustrate what a famous starched poem looks like and its form, scheme, or style (where appropriate).

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A Hundred Collars

...
A man? A brute. Naked above the waist, 
He sat there creased and shining in the light, 
Fumbling the buttons in a well-starched shirt. 
"I'm moving into a size-larger shirt. 
I've felt mean lately; mean's no name for it. 
I just found what the matter was to-night: 
I've been a-choking like a nursery tree 
When it outgrows the wire band of its name tag. 
I blamed it on the hot spell we've been having. 
'Twas nothing but my foolish hanging back, 
Not liking to own up I'd grown...Read more of this...
by Frost, Robert


Ballad of the Moon

...yes closed tight.
"Moon, moon, moon, run!
I can feelheir horses come."
"Let me be, my little one,
don't step on me, all starched and white!"

Closer comes the the horseman,
drumming on the plain.
The boy is in the forge;
his eyes are closed.
Through the olive grove
come the gypsies, dream and bronze,
their heads held high,
their hooded eyes.

Oh, how the night owl calls,
calling, calling from its tree!
The moon is climbing through the sky
with the child by the hand.

They are...Read more of this...
by García Lorca, Federico

Desesperanto

...ill open, you know this, in yet another
hotel room. They have become your mother
country: benevolent anonymity
of rough starched sheets, dim lamp, rickety
escritoire, one window. Your neighbors gather
up their crusts and rinds. Out of a leather
satchel, the man takes their frayed identity
cards, examines them. The sons watch, pale
and less talkative. A border, passport control,
draw near: rubber stamp or interrogation?
You hope the customs officer lunched well;
reflect on the...Read more of this...
by Hacker, Marilyn

Domestic Work 1937

...lets she'd pull
the lid to--that look saying

Let's make a change, girl.

But Sunday mornings are hers--
church clothes starched
and hanging, a record spinning
on the console, the whole house
dancing. She raises the shades,
washes the rooms in light,
buckets of water, Octagon soap.

Cleanliness is next to godliness ...

Windows and doors flung wide,
curtains two-stepping
forward and back, neck bones
bumping in the pot, a choir
of clothes clapping on the line.

Nearer my God t...Read more of this...
by Trethewey, Natasha

Morning News

...ere, a kitchen
table's setting gapes, where children bred 
to branch into new lives were culled for war.

Who wore this starched smocked cotton dress? Who wore
this jersey blazoned for the local branch
of the district soccer team? Who left this black bread
and this flat gold bread in their abandoned houses?
Whose father begged for mercy in the kitchen?
Whose memory will frame the photograph
and use the memory for what it was

never meant for by this girl, that old man, who wa...Read more of this...
by Hacker, Marilyn


Novel

...
--And when a young girl walks alluringly
Through a streetlamp's pale light, beneath the ominous shadow
Of her father's starched collar. . .

Because as she passes by, boot heels tapping,
She turns on a dime, eyes wide, 
Finding you too sweet to resist. . .
--And cavatinas die on your lips.

IV.

You're in love. Off the market till August.
You're in love.--Your sonnets make Her laugh.
Your friends are gone, you're bad news.
--Then, one night, your beloved, writes. . .!

That ...Read more of this...
by Rimbaud, Arthur

On Mistress Nicely a Pattern for Housekeepers

...tation, 
With household virtues wedded to her name; 
Spotless in linen, grass-bleached in her fame; 
And pure and clear-starched in her conversation; 
Thence in my Castle of Imagination 
She dwells for evermore, the dainty dame, 
To keep all airy draperies from shame 
And all dream furnitures in preservation: 

There walketh she with keys quite silver bright, 
In perfect hose and shoes of seemly black, 
Apron and stomacher of lily white, 
And decent order follows in her track...Read more of this...
by Hood, Thomas

Paralytic

...ke ticker tape.
The night brings violets,
Tapestries of eyes,

Lights,
The soft anonymous
Talkers: 'You all right?'
The starched, inaccessible breast.

Dead egg, I lie
Whole
On a whole world I cannot touch,
At the white, tight

Drum of my sleeping couch
Photographs visit me-
My wife, dead and flat, in 1920 furs,
Mouth full of pearls,

Two girls
As flat as she, who whisper 'We're your daughters.'
The still waters
Wrap my lips,

Eyes, nose and ears,
A clear
Cellophane I cannot ...Read more of this...
by Plath, Sylvia

Victory

...he schools marched in procession in happiness and pride, 
The city bands before them, the soldiers marched beside; 
Oh, starched white frocks and sashes and suits that high schools wear, 
The boy scout and the boy lout and all the rest were there, 
And all flags save Australia's flag waved high in sun and air! 

The Girls' High School, and Grammar School and colleges of stone 
Flew all flags from their walls and towers – all flags except our own! 
And down here in the alleys ...Read more of this...
by Lawson, Henry

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